Second Chance: Beginnings
by wfkiwi
Summary: Time Travel AU. HP dies but awakens in a world where his family is alive and well. Neville is BWL. H/multi Rated M just in case for violent references. First foray into FF, constructive criticism welcomed!
1. Chapter 1

**Second Chance: Beginnings**

_Disclaimer: Only the plot is mine, all characters related to Harry Potter and everything in it belongs to J.K. Rowling, I'm just playing in her sandbox._

_The premise of the story follows canon up till the end of OOTP whereby it divulges with an additional of 5 years of all out war and then continues in an AU. Main part of the story is in the AU. Pairings will probably be Harry/multi. This is my first foray into ff, constructive criticism is highly welcome!_

Huff.. Huff... Heavy panting sounded within the ruins of Hogsmeade. The once busy and homely all wizarding town is now deserted long after its fall in the battles of the Blood War over the past 5 years. After in-numerous sieges and raids against Hogsmeade as well as the still standing Hogwarts, Hogsmeade now resembles nothing like its former glory due to its higher popular choice as the battleground between the forces of Light and Dark.

Harry Potter; The-Boy-Who-Lived, The-Chosen-One, The-Bane-Of-Darkness, amidst a multitude of other hyphenated silly nomers slowly made his way through the ruinous maze towards Hogwarts. The old proud school of WitchCraft and Wizardy still standing even after all the battles, bloodshed and tragedy that had befallen its earthen halls. Visible reminders of the battles fought near and in it mar its visage with the north tower the remaining tower standing tall and proud. The Order of the Phoenix no longer active with Harry as sole remaining member after all the old timers and the rest of the new initiates died over the last 5 years since the commencement of full scale all out war by Voldemort in his seventh year of school.

Ever vigilant, Harry painfully picked his way over the uneven ground as he morosely thought back on the past 5 years. After that stupid stunt and subsequent death of his godfather and been told the prophecy, Harry began his training against Voldemort from the summer after his fifth year of school.

He was first trained personally by Dumbledore and McGonagall before being taken and secluded in the outrageously warded secret home of the Flamels and trained by the Flamels in all current branches as well as several forgotten branches of Magic, as much as he could take. Apparently the Flamels never passed on as they had misled Dumbledore to believe. And Harry being highly motivated and deadly determined could take a lot. It took him close to two years to be certified passable by his mentors (at Master levels for almost all his subjects) and it was with heavy hearts and many tears that the Flamels sent Harry straight back into the embers of war.

In the time that Harry was away, the OOTP led by Dumbledore was very busy stifling DE raids as well as searching out all the hidden horcruxes. The DA led by Hermione, Ron, Neville, Ginny and Luna proved invaluable in the training and defenses of Hogwarts and its students as well as helping in many of the brain storming and searching portions of the horcux S&D missions.

Voldemort in that period of time surprisingly did not show himself often in public, he spent most of the time in the continent courting the favors of the Dark creatures, enlisting the willing and culling the unwilling as well as trying to scry out the location of his prophecized foe. He was afraid of the unknown and without killing Harry first or knowing his locale, unwillingly to step onto the frontline against the old fool exposing his back to his nemesis even if it is highly unlikely Harry could manage to kill him. Due to his actions, the DE raids were constant and heavily supported with bloodthirsty weres and vamps and the uncommon giant.

It was also partly in thanks to his preoccupation with the continent that the horcrux S&D missions were able to be carried out swiftly and stealthily. Voldemort was so full of himself and his own protections that he never used his live DE or Dark creatures as lookouts at any of his horcrux locations, thanks to that, the Order managed to get all of them bar Nagini before Harry returned from his seclusion.

The day Harry returned to the frontline was the day the embers of war flamed into a raging inferno. Once Voldemort got word of Harry's presence, he sent waves of his forces to raid and kill Harry wherever he was. Thanks to that Harry had to learn hard and fast on applying his newly acquired magical prowess as well as the thought process of killing or fatal incapacitation rather than stunning or binding first. Harry learnt this the hard way after the very first wave took the lives of the Order guards sent to meet him as well as the majority of the muggle population of the immediate area. Remus and Dora died in that first battle, remaining as the rear guards to give Harry time to get away. Since then, Harry buried his emotions so deeply and occluded his mind to such an extent that he never ever shed a tear again.

The very next raid was against Hogwarts and Hogsmeade as a ruse to drag Harry out from wherever he ran to, Voldemort didn't make an appearance on that raid and that was his next mistake as none of his forces could match Harry that day, Harry was like a raging god of war, a one man army as he wiped out and killed any and all who stood in his way in that battlefield before the Dark forces portkeyed away.

That was the day he became The-Bane-Of-Darkness and the day all DE rued and feared him onward.

From then the war dragged out over the course of 5 years as both Harry and Voldemort tried to get an advantage over the other to kill or tried to source out the whereabouts of the other.

Voldemort's constant raiding of Hogsmeade and Hogwarts to bait Harry resulted in the total decimation of the village as well as the final closure of Hogwarts in the 2nd year of the war. It was also the year where Neville, Luna and Ginny sacrificed themselves to kill off nagini in the battle when Voldemort made a rare appearance with the snake around him.

Harry was devastated by their deaths but he gave no show outwardly. It was less than a year later when Snape was lost, killed by Voldemort himself after he finally found out about his double crossing, Ron led the mission to rescue Snape but ultimately failed and died with the entire team when they were ambushed by the inner circle and the 3 ancient vampires under Voldemort. Voldemort in his sick mind set up Ron's and the rest of the team as well as Snape's heads up on pikes in the middle of the ashes of Diagon Alley.

Hermione and Dumbledore were lost when they responded to a DE raid on a muggle orphanage, they died protecting and shielding the innocent little ones and Harry was unable to go to their rescue as he was trapped in a battle with Voldemort's ancient vampires. By the time he destroyed two of them and escaped, he was too late and could only bury the bodies in a mass burial as they were no longer recognizable.

By the last year of war, there was no wizarding Britain left, only Voldemort and his last remaining members of his inner circle and Harry alone. Any semblance of wizarding Britain was in ruins or ashes and any sane British born witch or wizard had long gone far offshore in hiding. Even muggle Britain was affected, heavily enough that they jumped whole heartedly into their "war on terror" initiated by the neighbors across the pond.

Shaking his head as he felt again the keen aching of his heart and the gut wrenching pain of his entire body, Harry passed the old rusted gates of Hogwarts and made his way into what used to be the great hall.

"There's only Voldemort left.. Huff... hope he sees my present and comes running.. hahahaaa.." Harry muttered under his breath thinking back to the decapitated bodies of the 4 remaining members of the inner circle.

Making his way to the centre of the runic circle based upon blood and soul magic, Harry activated the primed blood wards that activated the circle as well as hid it under the strongest obscuring ward he could make and sat and waited for the arrival of his nemesis. He spared a glance to recheck his rune scheme for the last time to ensure that once he dies, the horcrux in his scar and Voldemort will be taken with him once and for all. It had taken him most of the last year to come up with this runic ward based upon the obscure magics of blood and soul after he finally realized why Voldemort was still alive even thought his horcruxes are supposed to be all destroyed. He had tried to kill Voldy at least 3 times already yet he still walks freely. That was when he realized the importance of his scar.

_**It could have gone a lot easier if the old man told me this before he died.. **_thought Harry affectionately as he looked back into his happy memories of all his dead friends and comrades.

He didn't had to wait long as with a near silent pop of displaced air, Voldemort appeared before him

"SSSSarrry Potterrr... Ssssinallly we meet for the last timeeee... SSSime to finish what Iii SSSSstarted yearssss agoo"

"_Took your damn time didn't you Snake Face, how did you like my present and is that old age catching up to you now that you can't even speak properly old lord of the mouldy warts?"_

"SSSSSILENCE YOU FOOLL! AVADA KEDAVRA!"

A burst of green light and darkness shrouded all...


	2. Chapter 2

AN: Sorry folks, didn't realize FFN removed my formats.  
- Harry's thoughts in Bold and Italics  
- Death's thoughts in Bold and Underlined  
- () expressed emotions

* * *

In the all-encompassing darkness of the void, he slowly opened his eyes or at least he assumed to have opened them as there was no change in his surroundings, nothing but jet black darkness in all directions.

_**Where am I? Who... Oh right, old Idiotmort finally did the deed... So this is the afterlife.. Will I finally see the others...**_ thought Harry with a hint of hope

**Greetings young hero, I applaud your courage and deeds** boomed a deep baritone

_**What? Who is it? Where are yo..we? What are you?**_

**(Snicker) You can call me Death young hero, we are at the boundary of worlds known as the Void youngling.**

_**Death? What's with that snicker... Nevermind.. Are you my guide to the afterlife? Where are my family and friends? I miss them so much...**_

**(Snicker) Yes yes I AM DEATH little boy, well usually I don't personally meet and greet reaped souls you know, but you are a very interesting mortal, young hero, as to your latter questions, that depends...**

**_...I sure hope I'm not dreaming, interesting huh... I'd rather not use that to describe my life.. What do you mean by depend...? Sir? _**thought-asked Harry more respectfully in response to the hint of annoyance in the entity's tone.

**Ah, good good, you finally remembered your manners. Well, do you want the short of it or the long version?**

_**Well I'd rather see my parents and friends again so the short version please**_

**...(pout) We have lots of time you know, time holds no meaning here after all and it's been a very LONGGGGG time since I last converse with a mortal.. hehehe**

_**What's up with that creepy laugh at the end? Erm... shor...**_

**Hehehehehehehehehe you sure you don't want the long version MORTAL? hehehehe**

… …**_as you wish sir... _**totally speechless, Harry felt like wishing for a wall to bang his head on

**(Snicker) that can be arranged (wink) alright youngling, listen carefully to my lovely voice for this wonderful wonderful circumstance that you are now in...**

An unknown amount of time later, Death's presence left Harry to let him ponder over the choice presented to him.

_**(Sigh) Finall.. Nevermind, better not complete that thought. Okay so after all that mind numbing cra... STOP IT, HE can HEAR my mind, occlude occlude, come on CALM DOWN potter!  
**_… _**OK, lets start over, so HE gave me 2 choices.  
**__**To move on now, I'll be able to see my family and friends again. OR take his offer and I'll be able to live and experience life once more WITH my parents together but in an Alternate world huh. And according to him, my parents, Sirius and Remus and the rest of the old gang wants me to take the second choice since my old life isn't really worth living or considered living... And this is supposed to be a very rare chance given because I've done him a favour by getting that cheating arsehole mouldypants huh. But I want to stay with my folks here and this sounds too good to be true. I wonder if he will let me meet my parents first before I decide...**_

**(Grin) OKAY! And your decision? My young friend~**

_**(Startled) OH! You... Sir, could I meet my parents first befor...**_

**Hehehehe SURE~ you shall see your parents very soon youngling, just remember that not everyone will remain the same as your old world. I'll leave you your acquired skills and knowledge as a freebie. Oh and a piece of advice, don't go changing events too soon 'kay, or whatever effect left of your foreknowledge would be worse than useless. Now adios~! And have tons of fun! I hope I don't see you anytime soon! Hehehehe (Snicker) (Snort)**

_**What!? But I haven't make a decision, what are yo..**_

**Yes you did, you chose the 2nd option!**

_**Wha..?!**_

**It's more entertaining for me this way. Have fun! Hehehehehe**

_**NOOOO! You can't do this to me! Wait a minu...**_

Harry suddenly felt a severe falling sensation as the void faded away...


	3. Chapter 3

**1985, October 31st All Hallows Eve**

5 year old Harry Potter giggled happily with his 4 year old sister Primrose where they sat in the play area of the living room floor as their "unca Paddy" and "moony" pulled faces and other antics to entertain the Potter children. James Potter, Senior Auror smiled happily as he looked on at the silly scene while carrying his 1 year old baby son Leo who smiled toothlessly along with his father.

The mother hen of the family, Lily Potter was currently putting the finishing touches to their family dinner in the kitchen.

The Potter family current residence at Godric Hollow looks just like any other normal 3 storey pleasant and homely cottage found in the sleepy little village. This village while having a surprisingly high number of wizarding households is an actual muggle populated village with the wizarding households spread across the entire village occupying less than 10% of the village population.

The threat of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had gone since the rise of The-Boy-Who-Lived Neville Longbottom 4 years ago. Mostly thanks to that, the security threat for the wizarding families is nearly non-existent and this is easily reflected by the free unhindered access for muggle kids going around the different houses treat or tricking. Even for the wizarding homes, at most, there are only proximity wards up to inform the household of any incoming visitors tonight.

The Potter family is no different, with a huge stash of various muggle candy and chocolate ready by the door for the muggle kids, they gladly took part of this muggle tradition for the fun of it. And best part of all is of course the Potter kids being entertained by the various get ups of the muggle children.

With the call of "Dinner's ready!" by Lily, the entire extended family went into the kitchen and sat down at the dinning table for a wonderful meal. As Lily and Remus settled the two feisty toddlers, James asked: "So what's up with Wormtail these days, did he contact you recently Padfoot?"

"You know he's weird like that right, disappearing off to who knows where for days on end then turning up with his souvenirs for the kids and new prank items from wherever he went, besides he likes it I think. Hey Moony, did Wormtail tell you when he will be back?" Sirius replied while inserting the baby pacifier into Leo's cute little mouth.

"Nope, no idea Padfoot, he didn't say when we asked remember?" Moony stated before putting on a neck napkin for Harry.

"Well, he will be back when he feels like it, guess he isn't over his mum's passing yet. Lets dig in, there are extras if he shows up" Lily advised passing the soup to James.

The topic soon changed to Quidditch and Auror duties and prank ideas as the dinner proceeded. Halfway thru the dinner, James head suddenly snapped up.

"3.. no 4 magicals, just apparated to our front yard..." Before he could complete his sentence or stand up, with a loud _BOOM_ the front door blew apart!

"Moony, Lily, shield the children! Padfoot with me 'ware the door" shouted James as he drew his wand swiftly, mirrored by the other 3 adults and moved cautiously towards the doorway facing the living room den followed closely by Sirius as both of them extended their senses fully to detect whoever are beyond the doorway. Sirius turned and jabbed and flicked his wand towards the back door of the kitchen leading to the backyard, opening it as well as placing a strong shielding charm on the doorway incase they need to retreat out that way.

Lily swept her wand over her children incanting under her breath and sent them behind her against a wall smoothly under a glowing blue shield while Remus flicked his wand at the table tipping it 90 degrees upright to block the children from the entrance hall doorway, followed by sending a revealing spell out the back door into the backyard "All's clear out the backyard, we can leg it that way if needed" before stepping before Lily and the children and acting as another barrier.

There was 5 seconds of silence, just before James was going to shout out "who's there" and right after Sirius had tap off a message on his auror badge with his wand and placing it back into his pocket, "_**CONFRIGO!" **_shouted a rough male voice as the wall beside the entrance hall doorway blasted inwards!

James immediately erected a non verbal anti material shield while 6 stunners from the other 3 adults flew into the growing dust cloud and through the new entrance.

There was a _thump_ of someone falling before overlapping voices of **"**_**Expulso!" "Crucio!" "AVADA KEDAVRA!"**_ and 3 deadly curses flew back at them.

James being the frontmost defender could not dodge the killing curse as it would probably hit one of the defenders or his babies behind him, he did one of his fastest ever combat transfiguration by transfiguring one of the fallen chairs in front of him into a large rock shield to block the killing curse.

It succeeded in blocking the killing curse but the pieces of rock from the resultant explosion hit him hard and painfully all over his body knocking him back into the table unconcious and bleeding.

Sirius erected a _protego_ shield which blocked the _Expluso _curse but the Cruciatus passed through it without an issue and impacted him, he managed to snap off a reducto towards the entrance just as the Cruciatus impacted before falling to the floor convulsing and screaming in pain.

Remus was beyond furious when he saw the killing curse but was hesitant to cast in case he needed to shield the children.

Lily was feeling the same until she saw James go down and her combat reflexes honed in the war kicked in. Calming down her furious thoughts, she high kneel with one knee to the ground and started casting furiously at the entrance, her wand whirl and jabbed and swirled and danced in a blur as multi colored streaks of spell fire jetted from her wand into the area where she gauged the enemy to be in, the resultant explosions and roars of destruction confirmed that she had just single-handedly destroyed her entrance way and living room with the house groaning in tune with each louder explosion.

Through this, Remus just watched with a half smirk on his face while remaining alert and cautious for the kids behind him and both doorways at the same time as admiring Lily's casting ability and spellwork and agreeing mentally to previous agreed upon thoughts of the marauders that Lily is truly the strongest among them and woe be the idiot who crossed her.

Thanks to Lily's awe-inspiring spellwork, the user of the cruciatus must have either dropped the spell or was incapacitated in that stream of deadly spells as Sirius stopped screaming and tried to get up even while taking huge breaths and trying to stop his body's involuntary trembling with the only thought of protecting his god children. As he shakily stood up with a steadying hand on the table, Moony made his way cautiously to James and started diagnostic and subsequent healing spells while Lily renewed the shields on the children and covered them all. Through that brief spell fight the 2 toddlers had sat wide-eyed behind the shields while baby Leo actually giggled at the light show. The shields that Lily had cast not only have strong protective properties but are also sound proof to prevent scaring the children as well as to prevent the adults from been distracted by the children's cries should they be spooked by the spell fire. Although Harry and Primrose couldn't hear the adults, they can still see their expressions and they picked up on the adult's emotions but are too shocked to cry yet.

As James was revived back from his unconscious state, dozens of aurors and oblivators apparated in to the Potter Cottage surroundings.

"James! Lily! Are you guys okay? Merlin pants, Please shout out to us if you are alive!" came the loud voice of Head Auror Amelia Bones.

"Aurors spread out, I want this area contained immediately, Team A & B to the village and area security, Team C with me into Potter's house. Stun and bind any malefactors first then ask. Oblivators do your work! Tons of muggles are already gathering." Ordered Master Auror Mad-Eye Moody as he cast temporary anti-apparation and anti-portkey wards over the Potter Cottage.

"Amelia! Thank Merlin you are here, we are okay mostly, we are in the dinning area, the front part of the cottage are where the intruders were, come over carefully, James and Sirius took some damage and they are not very mobile at the moment but their injuries are not fatal. The kids and Remus are with me as well and we are relatively fine" shouted Lily from the depths of the devastated house.

"Ok, lads you heard the red head, with me" Moody said to his team as his magical eye swirled to face the area where Lily's voice came from before swirling to around the spell blasted areas where the entrance hall and living room used to be. "There, there and there, 3 bodies under those rubble, 2 alive and 1 dead, I've marked accordingly, stun and bind before extraction to the front yard. Stebbins, Proudfoot and Savage go with vigilance. Dawlish you guard their backs. Crowley with me" Moody barked as he send paint spells at 3 different parts of the rubble before moving evenly towards the dining area.

* * *

"...with me" _Clack thump clack thump... _

The sound of mismatched footsteps broke into her conciousness. Bellatrix Lestrange, most loyal and fanatical of the Death Eaters, stifled her moan of pain as she tried to access her body condition. She haltingly half-opened her eyes to see that she was trapped beneath fallen rubble and tried to move her wand arm ever so slightly, amidst the pain of broken bones wrecking her. She felt the rigid wood of her wand through the death grip of her hand that was currently trapped under part of the fallen wall. Hearing a different set of footsteps approach her location, she stilled all movement and smiled maniacally...

In the dark dusk cover of the Potter's backyard, a shadow slinked against the back wall slowly making its nervous way to the back door. Barty Crouch Jr. had branched off from the Lestranges at the start of the raid towards the backyard and back door of the cottage as part of the plan to sandwich and pick off the Potter family. He made good use of the noise of the battle to sneak his disillusioned way along the walls towards the back when all of a sudden, multiple successive explosions tore the front and side portions of the house apart! It was only due in part of his reflexes and mostly luck that he managed to leap and row out-of-the-way just before the wall that he was standing near blasted outwards. Chokingly getting up and slinking back to the low shadows, he blinked at the dust cloud and sight of the destruction before continuing on his way.

_Damn Lestranges! Did they forgot about me outside the walls! I'll crucio them in their sleep for this! Ah, but I would have fun raping and torturing that red-headed mudblood in front of Potter & Black, then kill the little mudblood scum in front of them. Hahahahaha, if that still doesn't break them into releasing the location of the Dark Lord, I'll leave them in Bellatrix's tender mercies.. _Thought Barty Crouch Jr droolingly while he slinked his way among the dusk shadows to the backyard.

Stebbins grimaced in disgust as he levitated a large chunk of wall rubble off the red spot marked by Moody. Whoever it was underneath died messily either due to the spell battle or more likely due to been squashed under the sizable chunk of wall rubble. He looked for any identifying signs of who it was, but other than knowing that it was a man, there were no other identifying items on him or in his tattered robes. _Oh well, guess we will know from the other two living soon-to-be Azkaban inmates or we will just have to run his wand by Ollivanders. _Thought Stebbins as he conjured a body bag over the remains and levitated the bag towards the front yard.

As Stebbins went pass him, Proudfoot nodded to Savage as the two of them aim their wands at the rubble pile of the green marked area in front of them. Proudfoot slowly vanished the rubble piece by piece while Savage prepared to stun if anything moves under the pile and Dawlish prepared to shield them. Just as Proudfoot vanished a small-sized rubble, a feminine chalk-white hand appeared under it with a dark ebony wand in a white knuckled grip.

"_**Solaris Maximus!" **_Screeched Bellatrix before she shouted _**"Depulso!" **_banishing the remaining rubble on top of her at the aurors.

Blinded by the solar maximum spell, Proudfoot and Savage were slow to react, while Dawlish had sent up a shield by reflex, the shield could not withstand the over powered banishing charmed rubble missiles and collapsed. The 3 aurors were knocked flying out of the house by the impact of the rubble projectiles on their bodies and tumbled across the front yard.

"Hahahaha, take that vermin! Blood traitors and mudbloods should know your damn place.." Laughed Bellatrix as she painfully sat up her upper body. Before she could take further action, twin jets of red light impacted her back while another red light impacted her front causing her to slump forward into darkness.

* * *

Minutes ago...

"How are you feeling darling, it seems the calvary has arrived" sighed Lily in relief as she carried baby Leo and fussed over James at the same time.

"Not bad, now that no spells are flying and I'm looking at your beautiful eyes, a little couple time and I'll be good as new" joked James in return as he tried to even his breathing, still feeling the pain from the broken bones. Thankfully Moony had stopped the bleeding and closed his wounds.

"Hey, we are still here loverboy, and the rugrats are looking at you too" returned Remus as he re-righted the dining table and settled the toddlers and Sirius into chairs beside James.

Sirius just smiled shakily at the still wide-eyed toddlers as he try not to let the after effects of the cruciatus show.

At this moment, Moody stepped pass the broken wall and into the dining room proper with Crowley taking point just outside the doorway.

"Still alive laddie? Good, you are in for a long chew out session with me once we get you sorted out" huffed Moody at his protegé James while his magical eye swirled once over the entire Potter family and co before facing back out of his head at the other aurors. "Crowley, restrain James for side along to St Mungo's, he has broken bones and give Sirius the cruciatus potion"

Lily stood up to let Crowley bind James in bandages while Remus took the potion from Crowley and helped Sirius in getting it down.

"Ouch! Damn it Crow, be more gentle will you" whined James before Lily slapped his head gently and winked at Crowley who smirked at James.

"Daddy looks like a mummy!" giggled the toddlers together drawing croaked laughter from Sirius and a small sigh of relief from Remus and Lily who were starting to worry about their wide-eyed looks.

Just then Moody tensed and swept around back towards the entrance with his wand out. Remus was the first to react with his superior reflexes and came to stand beside Moody looking at the spell blasted area just as the 3 aurors were knocked flying out of the house.

"_**Stupefy!" "Stupefy!"**_ Twin jets of red stunners flew straight and true and strike Bellatrix in the back just as Amelia's own stunner impacted the same target. Amelia gave a grim nod to Moody and he started his way forward towards the downed Bellatrix as well as the other green marked spot of rubble.

Lily left Leo with Sirius and joined Remus at the doorway with wands out to gauge the happenings as well as act as guard for medic auror Crowley and her patients.

It was at this moment with a shimmer in the air, Harry Potter was grabbed and held mid-air and a young man's voice shouted "Throw down your wands now or I'll curse little Potter to the next life"

The adults in the room simply froze and stared as they tried to process this sudden threat. Primrose and Leo started crying loudly breaking the frozen thoughts of the adults as they moved towards the kids.

"SHUT UP you annoying bugs! Did you not hear me, throw down your wands. Bloodtraitors and mudbloods have no right to hold wands" shouted the shimmer as he cancelled the disillusion charm to show himself as Barty Crouch Jr while shaking his hostage wildly.

Crowley, Sirius and Remus had their wands pointed at Barty while James was invalid on the floor and Lily was hesitant and slightly panicking at the sight of her precious child been held by the mad man.

Their foremost thoughts were to save Harry and curse Barty to oblivion but they do not know how to go about in this situation without harming Harry.

As the seconds dragged past, Barty visibly got more and more incensed and agitated as his wand started trembling while held against Harry's neck.

Through this, Harry was silently crying tears of confusion and fright as he look on at his parents and uncles frightened looks.

Seeing the mad look of Barty's eyes, Lily decided to try to lower the tension and hopefully cause an opening in the enemy for them to take him down and save Harry without harm. "Who are you and what is your group here for?" asked Lily resolutely while tightening her grip on her wand.

"Shut it mudblood, do not speak as if you are my equal, the only good your kind is for is to lay and spread your legs for us and serve at our pleasure like the mudblood you are!" raged Barty.

"So what does a uncaptured Death Eater like you doing here in an auror captain's house" retorted Sirius catching on to Lily's plan.

"Tell us the location of the Dark Lord, blood traitor and I will kill you swiftly for it" said Barty as his red veined eyes switch to Sirius.

"What!? Voldemort is already dead, destroyed by Nev..." questioned Remus

"HOW DARE YOU! DO NOT SPEAK OF THE DARK LORD'S NAME YOU FLITHY HALF BREED! _**CRUCIO!**_" raged Barty as he sent the cruciatus point-blank at Harry.

Harry screamed and convulsed causing Barty to drop him head first to the floor.

"NOOOOOO!" screamed Lily as she reflexively cast a cushioning charm at the floor.

"_**Reducto!" "Stupefy!" "Diffindo!"**_ cursed Sirius, Crowley and Remus as tri colored spells rocketed at Barty.

Barty shielded the curses while backing away towards the back door.

_Thump._ That muffled bump of Harry hitting the cushioned floor caused Lily to see red and snap with a vengeance as she leaped forward and started her spell chains.

Barty sneered and shielded against Lily's first spell thinking that he would never lose to a mudblood and looking forward to putting her in her place. However, when the spells continued with no lapses in timing, he was forced back more and more from the magical backlash and invested his whole magical strength and concentration fully into his shield. Seconds later, his shield collapsed from the spell barrage and with a horrified look on his face, he saw the dull red of a reductor and a greenish blue unknown spell coming straight at him through the remnants of his broken shield.

Barty managed to dodge the 2 chained spells by dropping to the floor on his stomach but could not avoid an additional blasting hex by Remus which missed his hand on the ground by inches but blasted him backwards to an almost upright position nor the stunner and follow up banisher by Crowley. He was banished through the back door unconscious and will stay that way till he awaken in Azkaban.

* * *

AN: Thanks for the support and reviews, I take them into consideration and hopefully improve my writing skills.  
Sorry to stop at this point, but I'm having trouble putting into words the next scene. Hopefully a break from writing would allow the words to flow. =)


	4. Chapter 4

The quiet atmosphere of the hall way in St Mungo's was broken by the soft sobbing of a woman with long red hair burying her head on the shoulders of a brown-haired young man with a premature lined face.

As Sirius Black slowly made his way towards the pair, Remus looked up at him with a questioning gaze.

"James will be fine, he's in bed with skele-gro for his broken arm, ribs and thigh, Lady Potter's looking after him. Amelia and Moody will take care of the prisoners and I've already undergone debriefing with them. Prim and Leo are already asleep at Greengrass manor with a wee bit of watered down dreamless sleep. Cygus's wards are top-notch and both him and Elena won't let anything happen to them." Sirius sighed, dragging his hand through his long wavy locks of black hair without missing Lily's slight tensing and relaxing of her shoulders at her James' and kids' condition "Lord Potter have gone to organize the Potter elves and the cottage should be like new by daybreak. Any news from Healer Smith yet?"

Remus shook his head sadly while a soft "..my poor baby.." could be heard coming from Lily. "The healers are still in the ward working on Harry, none of them came out with any news yet. Any idea who those wankers were?" growled Remus softly as Moony raged to kill all those who dare hurt his pack in the inner depths of his mind.

"Apparently the guy who hurt Harry (_growl)_ was Barty Crouch's darling son while the others that were blasted by Lily in the living room were my dear cousin Bellatrix and her losers of a husband and brother-in-law. Good news is Rodolphus is dead, bad news is the other 3 are still alive though in auror custody" Sirius answered while staring morosely at the door of the ward room.

Remus softly swore as the three of them sinked into a silent vigil broken occasionally by the soft sobs of a heart-broken mother. Remus tired yet too worried to rest, let his mind wander over the events of the past few hours...

* * *

"HARRYYYYYYYY!" screamed Lily as she rushed towards her fallen firstborn.

Reaching her son, Lily shakily yet gently grab and hugged Harry to her bosom as she stared broken heartedly at his trembling small frame and closed eyes. "Help him Please!" sobbed Lily at Crowley who had reached her with Remus right behind her.

Crowley casted a multitude of various diagnostic spells and incanted under her breath while jabbing and waving her wand over the small trembling form.

"The results are not good and I'm not able to improve his conditions with what I have with me. He needs St Mungo's now" stated Crowley tight-lippedly.

"Do it! Go with her now Lils, get Harry to St Mungo's for help" Groaned James from the floor, tears falling unabashedly down his bandaged face filled with his helplessness at his family's time of need.

Lily looked towards her husband and seem to carry out an unspoken conversation between their eyes, nodded once and grabbed the auror issued portkey held out by Crowley that would allow them to portkey to St Mungo's directly, bypassing the anti-portkey wards set up by Moody.

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" Sobbed James as he wept for his son.

"Don't blame just yourself Prongs, we all share the same blame" croaked Sirius as a tear fell onto his white knuckled grip on the table edge.

Remus cleared his throat, deciding to be the much-needed pillar for his brothers in all but blood "We must trust that Harry will be fine, we need to get Prongs to Mungo's as well, Padfoot are you fine after that potion or do you need a check up as well. I'll have to apparate Prongs over first before coming back to take you." asked Remus while he hugged and calmed the crying Prim and Leo.

"Take Prongs over Moony, I'll be fine once the potion kicks in." replied Sirius while accepting a bawling Leo onto his lap from Remus before continuing "I'll take care of the kids and the aftermath and see you at Mungo's later.."

"What happened!?" interrupted Amelia as she skidded into the dining area followed closely by Moody and Stebbins.

"Right, first off, we need either to lower the anti-apparation ward or get your specialized portkey to get James to Mungo's and then I'll need to get hold of certain people and..." explained Sirius as he turn towards the newcomers...

* * *

The opening of the ward doors broke the stupor of the waiting adults as they rose as one and looked hopefully at the out coming Healer.

"How's my son Healer Smith?" sobbed Lily beating the rest who were about to ask the same question.

Healer Ryan Smith came to a halt as he looked tiredly at the gathered adults before returning the beseeching gaze of Lily and spoke with a hint of sadness "I'm sorry Mrs Potter, we did all that we could do. But the child is too young and to suffer from such a dark and powerful curse as the cruciatus.. The child is... for a lack of a better word, deeply asleep in his own mind. His body has gone into a severe state of shock from the curse and his young undeveloped magical core while trying to protecting his body.. It was drained to levels so low that I fear that even if the child should awaken, he will be no more than a squib or worse.. it seems almost as if he was kissed by a dementor."

"... what do you mean... my baby, can't you help him?" Lily stated brokenly, her mind in shambles while Remus and Sirius both have shocked looks on their pale white faces.

"We have tried all that we could with our best spells and potions, the child's body is healed perfectly but I'm sad to say that the child is still in a coma, in muggle terms, he would be called brain-dead. But all is not lost, there is always hope that his core will regenerate and heal his mind and spirit, at that time he will awaken with his magic intact, the other chance is that his core stays at his weakened levels but his mind recovers to the point that he awakes but as a squib. However we do not know when he will awake or even if he will ever wake.." Smith replied truthfully.

Lily sagged and would have fallen to the floor had Sirius not caught her in time, a sad low keening sound emanated from her downcast face as tears fell in an un-stopping stream.

Remus took a deep breath before asking in a low voice devoid of emotion "Can we go in and see Harry?"

"Go ahead. A last piece of advice, visiting and talking to him often even if he shows no response may hopefully help in reaching him and getting him to awaken." Healer Smith replied with a grim look before nodding and joining with the rest of the healers leaving the ward.

"He looks so peaceful, just like he was sleeping at home..." Lily sobbed as she gently stroked Harry's forehead while tears continued to fall intermittently down her face.

Sirius and Remus agreed silently while looking on sadly at the heart wrenching scene. The two of them stayed for the next couple of hours speaking to Harry while also trying to get Lily to go to Greengrass manor to get some rest, they finally gave up just before dawn and left after conjuring a small couch beside Harry's bed and getting Lily to promise to sleep on the couch before she fall over from exhaustion.

The two of them looked at each other sadly before uttering soft goodbyes to Harry and Lily and walking out of the ward.

By unspoken agreement, they decided to inform James about Harry's condition only after they have rested and James have recovered from his injuries. Remus left for his own flat while Sirius left St Mungo's and apparated to Greengrass manor to check on his other 2 god children and to update the elderly Potters and co.

"Oh poor baby, I'm so sorry that you got hurt, I should have done better, oh my poor baby..." cried Lily once she was left alone with Harry "We won't care even if you end up a squib, just please wake up and return to me.. Harry... my poor poor baby.. I'd give up anything if you could just wake up..." sobbed Lily tiredly as she started to lose the fight for consciousness due to exhaustion.

** It's time (_Snicker)_.. Enjoy your second chance young Hero. Hehehe**

Unseen and unheard by anyone that dawn, a bright flash of white light erupted from and around little Harry's prone body. A soft melody consisting of whispered wind and phoenix song sang for the duration of the light show. The light strongly built up to the point that the whole ward turned absolute pure white for an instant before fading to nothing.

As the old soul merged with and healed the broken young soul, deep in the recesses of young Harry's broken mind, memories of a different world, personality of a battle hardened warrior and emotions of an isolated Chosen-One blended and mixed in a never-ending swirl with its 5-year-old alternate self as it slowly but steadily repaired and reform itself.

The end result from this merging would give new hope and a savior to dark times.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

He awoke to the feeling of heavy pounding in his brain. He groaned in pain after trying and failing to open his eyes from the pounding and weight of his eyelids. After an unknown space of time where the pounding subsided to a dull but light throbbing, he lifted his much lighter eyelids and slowly sat up only to find himself sitting upright in a vast emptiness. Everything around him were in shades of grey, from the bluish grey of a never-ending landscape that stretches plainly as far as the eye can see with no ups or downs, to the lighter grey of the horizon and to the dark grey of an almost black color of the sky. He looked around slowly with a hint of vertigo and a confused look on his face.

_What happened to me.. Where is this place.. and Who am I?_ He thought as he searched for some indication or hint or at least something that breaks away from the monotone of his surroundings.

""We are in your mind"" came dual voices behind him, startling him. As he twisted around quickly, 2 figures phase into existence facing him. ""You are we and we are Harry James Potter"" continued the synchronized voice of the two. Harry curiously observed the two figures before him, the first splashes of color in this grey monotone world. The left figure appears to be a chubby faced, messy haired red-headed little boy of around 4 or 5 years of age with gentle brown eyes dressed in nice fitting muggle clothing and smiling cutely at him. The right adult figure towered over him, looking at around late 20s shared the similarity of messy hair with the boy but with neck long black hair and bright emerald-green eyes. The adult figure was wearing form-fitting battle robes and had numerous scars marring his visage and areas of his exposed hands and neck. He too was smiling or rather more like smirking at Harry.

Before Harry could open his mouth or convey his thoughts, ""It's ok, you are us so you already know all that has occur and what may occur years from now. Take your time and enjoy life, you are the better sum of us and with the lessons from our past, you would have a lesser chance of making the same mistakes. Take the wisdom from our past mistakes and work for a better future. We have better and stronger reasons and motivations to fight the good fight now"" said the two figures as they burst into particles of light that shot straight into Harry.

Immediately, the grey world faded away and images and memories swirled around the floating Harry, the images flowed faster and faster into a wide-eyed but smiling Harry as he embraced both his past and future.

* * *

James Potter apparated away from the auror office and ministy of magic after closing and submitting his report on his missing friend Peter Pettigrew. Worriedly he thought back on the scene of the remains of Peter's house that was blasted by so many bombarding hexes that they are still finding pieces of kindling of his house miles away. He feared the worst for his long time friend and was feeling helpless over the situation. A feeling that was uncommon and decidedly uncomfortable for him even as he flinched from a crystal clear memory of feeling the same just less than a week ago. He passed through the muggle entrance and swept down the hallway towards the stairs as he nodded in greeting to the receptionist behind the walk-in counter of St Mungo's. Tired eyes swept across the hallways and ward rooms swiftly for threats in an ingrained reflex after trying years of the war and auror duties. He combed a hand tiredly over his raven nest as he thought back on the past week from after he awoke from his less than restful night regrowing his broken then vanished bones.

His mother; Lady Dorea Potter nee Black was by his bedside when he had awaken with her customary frown pasted on her regal face that was there whenever he landed himself in a ward bed. She broke into a gentle smile when she saw him stir fussing over him and asked how he was feeling.

As he finally managed to placate his loving mother that he was perfectly fine and learning from her that his father Lord Charlus Potter had gone back to Potter manor to sleep after staying for most of the night, Moony walked in and after exchanging pleasantries with "Aunty" Dorea, haltingly broke the news about Harry's condition.

James acutely felt his world stop and helplessness from the previous night overwhelmed him again as Dorea hugged him tightly while tears of her own flowed.

Minutes later, a grieving James half supported half carried his mother as they made their way out of his wardroom and towards the wardroom where Harry was.

Halfway there, they were intercepted by a running Sirius who was just heading for James' wardroom with a supremely hopeful look on his youthful face.

"Quickly Prongs! Moony! Aunty! You have to see this, the Healers say Harry's condition improved tremendously! Harry's coming back to us!" yelled an agitated Sirius as he hurriedly push and tugged the stunned trio towards Harry's wardroom.

An Hour Earlier:

Lily woke up achingly and stretched her arms out and away from her body to relieve the soreness from her sleep. She blinked dazedly before reality and memories from the past night propelled her instantly awake while heart aching sadness and worry gnawed away at her heart as she looked anxiously to the ward bed beside her where the small figure of her firstborn lies seemingly asleep.

Tears welled up in the rims of her eyes as Lily slowly and lovingly combed her hand over Harry's messy red hair that had streaks of black hair dotting it sparingly.

_Huh? black hair?_ Thought Lily confusedly as she brought her face closer and observed her son in detail.

"Good Morning Mrs Prongs! How's Harr.. Wait, what are you doing?" asked Sirius when he walked in to this scene of Lily bent over Harry's face while staring confusedly at his hair

"Padfoot, have a look at Harry's hair, tell me if I'm wrong but doesn't it look like its grown a bit and now there's black mixed in?" Lily said while waving her hand absent-mindedly at Sirius.

"You know I love you like a sister Lils but we never had a love child. I'd have remembered that.." Joked Sirius "Whoa that's wicked, when did this happen?" continued Sirius as he stared bemusedly at the black streaks in Harry's hair.

"Prat, go get Healer Smith or who ever healer is on duty" ordered Lily while smacking the back of Sirius head distractedly.

"Righty-oh your violentness, one Heel Ear coming up!" deadpanned Sirius as he rushed out of the wardroom with hope shinning in his eyes.

After grabbing the first healer he came across and demanding the healer to go to Harry's room pronto, Sirius backtracked his steps and ran towards James' wardroom to share the news.

Back in Harry's room, Lily stood at one side of the walls with her hands tightly clasped together as she stared anxiously at Healer Rylen who was incanting and sweeping his wand over Harry before muttering to himself at the results from his diagnostics. Several minutes later, Healer Rylen lowered his wand and walked distractedly out of the wardroom. "I'll be back with Healer Smith in a moment Mrs Potter" Rylen told Lily as he waved at Lily to stay where she were.

Lily moved to Harry's bedside and stared part hopeful and part anxiously at the doorway as she smoothed Harry's forelocks over his forehead. Minutes later, Healer Smith and Rylen entered the room followed closely by James and co.

"James!" "Lils!" exclaimed both before they met in a mutual emotional hug.

"Healer Smith, how is my grandchild? What is this new development that Sirius and Healer Rylen hinted at in their confusing conversation?" asked Dorea calmly.

"Kindly give me a moment to run some diagnostic spells and I'll get back to you Lady Potter" replied Healer Smith as he took out his wand and began casting the same spells as Rylen previously did.

Potter family and co waited with bated breath once Smith lowered his wand at the end of his spells and stared fixtatedly at him with a variety of emotions playing across their faces.

Smith and Rylen softly conversed shortly before Smith turned towards the family with a soft smile "We have compared our diagnosis and had the same conclusion. There is good news. Previously if you would remember, we had very low hopes for Harry seeing that his core and mind are both severely injured to the point that recovery seemed impossible. However, we now have a miracle in the making right before our eyes! Our diagnosis is showing us that even as we speak, Harry's magical core is replenishing and recharging itself. This bodes well for his condition as it shows his magic is not gone and is well on its way to recovery. Furthermore, our scans has shown brain activity so Harry is no longer brain-dead as the muggles would say. We are very happy to announce that based on the scans, Harry is on the road to recovery and will definitely awaken once his magic and mind finish healing!"

The family broke into relieved smiles and teary eyes with the marauders whooping and jumping with glee. Dorea was the first to regain her equilibrium and asked while hugging Lily "What happened for this miracle to occur? Not that I'm complaining of course. And when would Harry wake up?"

"We do not know for sure, this truly is a miracle of magic. It is the first time we are seeing a patient recover from such a severe magic inflicted condition. As you can see, Mister Potter is experiencing some bodily changes in particular his hair color. There may be other changes while his magic and mind heals, we will have to run more diagnostics on him once he wakes to gauge his well-being. At his magic's current replenishing and recharging rate, we can put forth an estimate of around 5 days to a week before his core stabilizes and once his core stabilizes, his mind needs to stabilize and he should wake up then." replied Rylen while Smith nodded agreeably with his statement.

The eyes of the family lit up even more at this and dissolved into merrymaking and relieved sighs of joy and hope.

Throughout the next few days, Harry's wardroom was never silent as a variety of visitors kept vigil at his bedside making conversation with other visitors or updating Harry's sleeping form with the latest happenings in their lives. His parents were there everyday, Lily would stay there most of the day from morning till the evenings while James would stay from evenings to late nights after his work at the auror office ended, usually along with Sirius who would end his auror duties around the same time. Primrose and Leo were taken to visit their sleeping big brother daily by different people. The first day they were brought over by the Greengrasses whose manor they slept over at. Crygus and Elena brought along Daphne (5) and little Astoria (3) as well and were relieved when they learnt that Harry would recover and chatted with Lily and Dorea for the morning assuring Lily that the younger Potter children were no trouble and that they would be happy to look after them again before leaving with their daughters in the afternoon after the little Greengrasses got feisty from boredom. That night Lily brought Prim and Leo back home to Potter Cottage with the wards re-activated and primed to war-time levels just at incapacitating instead of lethal force. The following days; Lily, Moony or the elder Potters would alternately bring Prim and Leo to and fro Potter Cottage and St Mungo's although the younger kids would not stay long as they tend to get bored easily.

Family friends such as the Bones, McGonagall, Flitwick and Dumbledore among others visited as well after getting word of the incident.

Through these all, Harry seemingly slept and Healer Smith did his healer duties of scanning and diagnosing Harry daily with continued positive results.

* * *

_And Today is hopeful day 7-oh!_ thought James positively as he stride into Harry's wardroom giving Lily a hug and kiss before taking his seat beside Harry.

"Honey how was your day? Want to go home and rest Lils dear? you are looking a bit tired. The kids?" asked James as he stroked Harry's forehead.

"I'm fine darling, Prim was crying for Harry just now and asking why is he still sleeping. Mother took her back home an hour ago and Leo's with Father at home all day." sighed Lily as she stretched her arms outwards to relieve the tension accumulated in her shoulders after sitting for a long period of time.

"Our princess is sad and missing her big brother so you have to wake up soon 'kay" smiled James as he gently squeezed Harry's small hands before starting to chat with his lovely wife "Honey you'd never believe what Padfoot did today at lunch..."

The sound of soft gentle voices tickled the edge of his consciousness as he looked before him at his completed mindscape. Any visitors who intruded unannounced would be looking at the same thing as where he was floating in; a vast empty nothingness, a void devoid of details, a darkness deeper than black surrounded by even more darkness. This he took from what he remembered of his irritating encounter right after the death of half of his old self. To get to his actual inner mind, you would have to dance a silly dance concocted by his very cute and imaginative sister Prim, whereby several points of light would appear in the vast void and you have to touch the correct point of light to access his inner mind which takes after the library in Potter Cottage. Touching the wrong points of light would activate a set of rather nasty enchantments that would trap the rude intruder and range from simple incapacitating of movement to full out destruction of the trapped mind, which he would decide after deliberating over the motives of the intruder. This set of nasty defenses was derived by his past warrior self honed in the furnace of war. _Well in any case, they have to get the silly dance right first which has astronomical odds of actually succeeding. Heh_ thought Harry as his innocent young prankster-in-the-making personality shone thru.

Harry was amazed at his new self and personality after the long merger process of the two souls. His magic and knowledge of the arts have retained whole sale from the soul that came from the alternate future while the soul of this world, the innocent young 5 year old was so powerfully pure that the innocence embraced and washed away much of the accumulated bitterness and darkness of the older soul. The end result was a much younger Harry that is physically 5 years old but had a maturity level way beyond that at times but was still mentally young due to the pure innocence carried over in the merger. Harry is now somewhat a mentally childish 10 year old but who at the same time can understand and decipher adult theory and situations.

Feeling satisfied at the completion of his mindscape; a hard undertaking that took him the entire week to complete even with his mastery of the mind arts due to him having to first go through both sets of memories and attached emotions, then sorting everything out and storing them to building his tender inner mind to encasing his inner mind in the defences of the full mindscape. Harry huffed a sigh of satisfaction before cautiously reaching outwards and up to his consciousness. With a floating sensation he slowly settled himself into his physical body before allowing the signals and information from his physical senses to flow through to him.

In an instant, a flood of information rushed and overwhelmed him as Harry panicked a bit before centering his mind and applying powerful occlumency barriers to protect himself from the onslaught. _I should have known better, after a week or so of no reception, suddenly reconnecting to the physical realm is so foolish _thought Harry with self disgust. Relaxing himself, he slowly lowered his occlumency barriers and let the physical information flow through, as he got used to the flow, he lowered the barriers more and more till he removed them all together.

Soft voices whispering in a gentle and loving tone tickled his ears as his senses finally acclimatized to the physical world, _it's the sound of_ mum_'s and dad's voices_ supplied his mind as Harry part disbelievably but mostly hopefully opened his eyes.

The next instant, Harry totally regretted that action as light stabbed his eyes vengefully and he reflexively shut his eyelids while shaking his head slowly left to right and croaked painfully cursing the sun.

""HARRY!"" shouted both Lily and James as they heard the wonderful sound and movement produced by the sleeping boy in front of them.

Harry found himself helped up into a sitting position as he once again challenged the daunting task of lifting his eyelids.

He finally managed to open his eyes without further damage and the first thing he saw was the joyous yet surprised faces of Lily and James. "Mum? Dad?" Harry softly confirmed the existence of the faces in front of him.

""HARRY!"" exclaimed both loudly before they quickly wrap him in a tight hug. After what seemed like hours later, James let go of Harry while Lily continued to have her arms around him.

"Harry... my baby boy. How are you feeling? Any pain, discomfort? Do you remember what happened? I'm so glad you are awake now. You have no idea how worried all of us have been. I'm so.. so glad, I love you my baby boy, I will never let something like this happen to you ever again." sobbed Lily while James nodded heavily beside her, not trusting his voice at the moment.

"And your eyes, they changed color along with your hair, now you look more dashing than before with the wicked black streaks on red and emerald-green eyes like mine, we will have to beat off girls with beater bats in a couple of years time" smiled Lily as she hug Harry tightly into her bosom and planted a kiss on top of his head.

In return, Harry simply held onto Lily tightly, a small part of him thought them lost forever before the rational part of him and his new "self" crushed that thought and jumped and stamped on it for good measure. As he basked in the warm feeling of being hugged tightly by his mother along with the knowledge that both his parents are alive and well in front of him, tears started flowing freely down his face, he was surprised for a moment before feeling as tho a dam had burst, he started bawling loudly and buried his face into his mother's bosom seeking comfort from his mother while still crying rivers of tears. A part of him knew that this was a balm and cleansing of his soul. The darker part of his memories having burst forth in that moment of weakness in the security and warm of his parents' love something the past warrior had always kept in rigid control. He cried and cried, feeling the tears washing away the remnants of negative emotions from a time and place yet to or may never occur.

Lily just continue to hug Harry tightly while James laid a hand on her shoulder for support, both thinking that this was a normal reaction for a young child after a traumatic experience which will help heal and bring the child pass the experience and both positively looking forward to bringing Harry home and the return to happy days ahead.


	6. C6: New daily life and Animagus blooper

Disclaimer: I may wish differently but I do not own Harry Potter.

It has been nearly 3 months since Harry was discharged from St Mungos' and began his new daily life at Potter Cottage enjoying his long desired family life. It was an eye-opening experience as he re-familarized himself with the memories of his younger self while he mentally cried in joy daily, feeling the fulfillment of his older self long-held wishes. He got closer to his family and friends as he now has a better understanding of the world around him due to his mental maturity. He also gained a severely attached younger sister whom after the incident and ward stay, does not let Harry out of her sight for longer than 5 minutes. Primrose was already very close to Harry before the incident as they are only a year apart in age and had always played and lived together, however after the fright of the incident, Prim is no longer willing to let Harry out of her sight, even when Harry's using the loo, she would sit right outside the washroom's door and although they share the same bedroom, they have their own individual beds but Primrose would always sleep together snuggled with Harry unless they had argued sometime before sleep. Harry was initially very embarrassed when he and Primrose are bathed together by Lily but as they are just young toddlers and this has always been the case as his memories indicates, he got used to that notion.

Harry has embraced his new lifestyle and strives to be the best son/brother he could be, some actions he corrected, other habits he changed for the better. He now frequently initiates hugs with his family members and friends whenever he could, at first it was hard for him to do so and he had to apply occlumency and bring forth his younger self's memories before he could initiate the hugs. But after repeating hug after hug, it is now second nature to him and he found himself extremely soft-hearted around his family members and friends especially for his younger siblings where he gives in to his cute sister all the time and spoils her shamelessly. Harry is only lucky that Leo is not old enough to be more aware of his surroundings or vocal enough to ask him for things and is pretty sure he has no immunity to Leo's future puppy eye looks.

Harry had settled into a pretty relaxed daily schedule. He would be woken up for breakfast with his family including Sirius and Remus which always involves jokes and the occasional prank before James and Sirius would floo off to work. Remus is engaged by James as a nanny / gardener / handyman / etc and he would look after the gardens and keep an eye on the toddlers. Washing up after breakfast, both Harry and Primrose are usually left to their own devices to read or play with monitoring charms on them while Lily will perform housekeeping work with Leo strapped to her or in a carrier basket near her. Lily will gather her older kids for a bath if they had played in the gardens before preparing and eating lunch together. After lunch would be the time when the toddlers have a lesson period taught by either Elena Greengrass, Remus or Lily together with Daphne and Astoria who would floo into Potter Cottage with Elena. After 2 hours of reading, spelling and alphabet writing boredom, they would stop for the day and playtime for the children would commence, where Harry is dragged into mostly playing house or dolls with the other 3 girls, sometimes Harry would be able to convince the girls to play other games or ride their training brooms but usually he would be vetoed into girly games by Prim's puppy eyes. Often, the play session would be interrupted by visitors via floo. The elder Potters would visit daily and play with their grandchildren in the afternoon and stay for dinner before flooing home, Lady Potter or grandma Dorea would also give the children lessons in social etiquette whenever the chance arises. Other frequent visitors would be McGonagall "Aunt Minnie" and Flitwick "Unca Filly" during the summer break and Andromeda "Aunt Andy" and Nymphadora "Dora" Tonks. With this world's Dora at only 9 years old, 4 years older than Harry, she became a frequent play mate for the quartet and can be found in Potter Cottage at least thrice weekly. The families with children would floo home before dinner while the other adult visitors would usually stay for dinner. After dinner, Lily would again bathe Harry and Prim before snuggling with them in their room combing Primrose's hair and further playtime, reading or chatting till it is bedtime for the kids.

"Uuuuuu..." Groaned Harry as he stretched to relieve his body ache from lying stationary on the floor of the library for the last few hours. He had lain on top of multiple beanies and cushions on his stomach while reading through _Wizarding History of the Century_ since breakfast. On his side snoozed Primrose who had apparently tired of her own children's books and subsequent doodling, she was now snoozing snug beside him while hugging tightly on her stuffed kirin. Harry smiled as he recalled the event from a week ago that resulted in Primrose getting that unique stuffed toy.

_Flashback_

It was during one of the mornings after breakfast where Harry and Prim were in the library. Harry had just finished reading a children's tale to Prim and was starting to mediate and work on his flow of magic while Prim was sprawled on the floor beside him doodling on scrap paper with her muggle crayons.

Harry had found that after coming into this world, his magic has felt a little out of sorts. Although he retained all of his abilities, he now tends to over power his magic even for the simplest spells. Over the past two months, with liberal sneaky uses of his parents' or Remus' wands Harry has fine tuned his control on wand casting without triggering the monitoring charms on his or Prim's body as they are monitoring his health and emotional status and not his magic levels. However when it comes to his wandless abilities, his spells are still magically overpowered and when cast, the results are lackadaisical as compared against the amount of magic poured into the spell. Through intense meditation and constant feeling for the contrast in his flow of magic when casting with or without a wand, Harry realized that the problem lies in his young body and its unfamiliarity with its flow of magic. The channels in his body where magic flows are still young and not used to the heavy magic flow and magical channeling that wandless magic requires, resulting in inefficient and lousy wandless spells. As such, Harry has been mediating and constantly practicing casting wandless spells to recover his control and familiarize his body with his magic.

As he relaxed and settled into his inner mind, Harry was thinking of whether his animagus abilities are still retained and was working through his magic to try to morph into his non-magical form when once again he felt the rough, obstacle-filled feeling of his magical channels. _Magic is all about Intent, Will, Determination_ thought Harry as he pushed more of his magic power into the animagus magic conduit of his core determined to make the change. With a sudden feeling of something giving way, Harry felt a rush in his core as his magic poured much more of itself into the animagus conduit than he originally expected.

With a crackle of electricity and a smell of ozone, a small Kirin appeared in the space where Harry was sitting.

Primrose looked up round-eyed, startled at the loud crackle, before dissolving into giggles and hugging the strange form of Harry and shouting for her mum.

Harry was shaking his head from the woozy feeling of his first animagus change in this world and took control over his animagus form's mind as Lily rushed into the room after hearing Prim's shouts with Remus right behind her muttering about accidental magic from the monitoring charms. The two adults skidded to a stop as they came into the library, looking amazed and curiously at Harry.

Primrose's giggled shout of "It's Harry!" broke them out of their thoughts and they came forward calming Primrose down while still looking amazed at Harry's change.

"Prim darling, do you know what happened to Harry?" asked Lily lifting Primrose into her lap while Remus cast several spells trying to find out the same.

"Its Harry, there was a flash of light and a zzzt zzzt sound then boom~ it appeared!" giggled Primrose while waving her tiny arms around in illustration "can we keep him mummy?"

Remus laughed out loud while Lily replied amused "I'm afraid not sweetie, you wouldn't want Harry to stay in that form would you, he would no longer be able to speak or play with you."

Primrose seem to consider that seriously before replying "No I wouldn't. I like Harry more, can mummy turn him back?"

"We can certainly try sweetie" Lily answered before turning to look at Remus questioningly.

"It appears to be some form of transfiguration at the very least, maybe a full blown animagus spell. In any case, this must be the strangest and strongest ever accidental magic by Harry or Prim. I don't even know what that form is, it looks like a unicorn with its white body color and 4 legs with hooves and its single horn on its forehead with that somewhat stiff mane running down his back. But no unicorn ever have such a draconian head nor the scales covering his whole body nor that long flexible reptilian tail. I'd assume the bright green eyes are just a trait carried over from Harry much like most animagus having some identifiable markings.." mused Remus before he summoned a camera from the office room. "Lets take some pictures for memory and we can reference it with the magical creature books before reversing it shall we?"

Over the next half an hour, they took numerous pictures of Harry in his Kirin form alone or with Prim, Lily and Remus.

Another 10 minutes later, after increasingly stronger variants of _finite incantatem _proved futile on Harry, Remus tried a animagus reverting spell and Harry was successfully reverted in a flash of blue light. He was immediately squashed into a three-way hug by Prim and Lily while Remus looked on with a smile.

"It's official, our little marauder here is an animagus, at such a young age too. He will definitely grow up to be an extremely strong wizard! Wait till padfoot and prongs learn of this. We will train him up and pass on our legacy, Hogwarts won't know what hit them in a few years!" Declared Remus proudly while he wrote out a set of instructions to develop the film into wizarding photos to remind himself and kept the camera in his robes.

That night, dinner was a full-blown celebration as the Potter family praised young Harry for his accidental magic and potential while Remus regaled the table with the developed wizarding pictures. Through it all Harry set with a innocent and bewildered smile appropriate for his age plastered on his young face while sniggering mentally at the more outlandish suggestions and jokes made by the marauders. They found out through the _Creatures of the Magical World: A compendium_ that Harry's animagus form was a magical creature called Kirin that is native to the east asia regions. Fully grown Kirins are quite big and can near the size of Abraxan horses and there are geographical differences between the breeds of Kirin, while all kirins are omnivores there are differences in their appearance and abilities. Those in mainland china have control over fire and often appears wreathed in red hot flames with a more eastern dragon-like head and are orange gold in color. The breed in Japan and parts of Korea are like Harry's form, white in color with a western dragon-like head and with control over lightning. They are said to be able to travel via lightning bolts and often causes lightning storms to break out when they frolic in the clouds.

Before bed time, James permanently transfigured a stuffed toy version of Harry's kirin form for Prim and she named it her favorite and has tugged it around all over the house with her ever since.

Smiling at that memory, Harry returned his attention to the wizarding history book in front of him while absentmindedly casting, dispersing and recasting the _solaris _spell wandlessly. Getting in his practice of wandless casting and trying to get to his personal golden ratio of just-enough-magic-power to optimal-magic-result as balls of light appeared, hovered around his position before disappearing when he dispersed the spell before new balls of light replaced them.

_It would seem that this world's voldemort was not as powerful as the dark wanker back home. This is in my favor as I alone would be more than enough to bury him. Another fact in my favor is that his supporters doesn't seem that many nor were their atrocious deeds as numerous. The rough layout would be to take out his horcruxes systematically before taking him out at his revival ritual. As long as he does not get the support of those 3 ancients, this dark dork is simple enough to deal with. As to how to deal with his revival and whether to let Neville be taken for the revival ritual would depend on whether Neville is a horcrux and how many this mouldymort made in the first place. Well, I have lots of time to figure out and think of the actual plan so no hurry. After all haste makes waste as they say. As for my magic capabilities, since that accident with my Kirin form and the rest of the family thinking I have high potential, I should slowly display my magic abilities bit by bit to ease the family into it so that they don't get shocked when I start school... _Mused Harry as he closed the book and banished it back to its space on the bookshelves before turning to his napping sister.

Smiling tenderly at the soft sounds of sleep from his cute sister, Harry gently prodded Prim's cheeks "Wake up Prim, time for lunch soon" softly urged Harry as he continued to tease his sleeping sister, when Prim showed no signs of waking, Harry smirked evilly before proceeding to tickle her awake. It was to this scene of an all out tickle war between giggling toddlers that greeted Remus when he came in to get them for lunch.

After a delicious lunch of spaghetti with grilled chicken chops and a minor food fight started by baby Leo flinging sticky chocolate ice cream around the table, Harry and Primrose washed up before meeting up with the Greengrass sisters who had flooed over for their daily lessons. After 2 hours of basic letters where Harry switched off his mind, going through the notions of writing simple words while day dreaming of flying and thinking of magic theory, the quartet went out to the gardens to play joined by Dora who had flooed over with her mother. The kids had fun exploring the Potters' large backyard that links to the untamed wild lands surrounding Godric Hollow. While they were playing in a flower field, Harry in a burst of mischievous inspiration decided to turn into his current sheepdog-sized Kirin form to surprise the other girls. He only succeeded in the first few moments where the girls looked at him in open-mouthed surprise before he had the tables turned on him when none of them were afraid and were soon riding him around like a pony. Lily rushed out to the gardens when she felt the trigger of Harry's monitoring charms and smiled relieved and amusedly at his ferrying of the girls. She let Harry remain in that form until the girls had to go home near dinner time before reversing the animagus transformation, once again attributing the incident as another burst of accidental magic.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any other works that I took inspiration from ;).

AN: Sorry for the long wait and thanks for all the kind reviews.  
Real life's been a bitch these days and I've been busy taking care of sick family members. 

Penny is wise: Nope, currently not planning to let the parents know about his past.  
Star Iron: Thanks, yes, think of it as an alternative to the commonly used phoenix flaming and I also had an awesome idea based off that element for a battle mage spell that is from a manga i read.  
tchizek: I don't like dark and angst either

* * *

24 DEC 1986 – Yuletide Eve family lunch, Potter Manor

Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress and transfiguration mistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry sipped her cup of excellent hot Ceylon tea as she relaxed in the easy and comforting atmosphere of gossiping friends and the company of her favorite ex-students turned pseudo family. She's currently in the midst of a yuletide lunch, sitting outdoors at a table placed on the extensive Potter Manor grounds, around the table sat the Potter family and their closest relatives and friends. A glance around the table and you could easily see Lords and Ladies of Ancient and Noble Houses, Wizengamot members, Auror captains, Hogwarts professors and others from all walks of life.

Currently at her end of the table where the ladies were gathered chatting about a variety of topics ranging from the latest Witches' fashion to the newest updates in Transfiguration Today or Premiere Potions or they were simply coo-ing and gaga-ing at the latest additions to the Potter and Black family.

Iris Lilith Potter, born on August 30th this year is currently sleeping peacefully in a tightly wrapped bundle in Lily Potter's arms while Elara Noctis Black, born within minutes of Iris, lie in her mothers' arms sleeping peacefully as well. Septima Black née Vector, ex-spellcrafter in the Department of Mysteries before she married Sirius Black in June of this year, beamed happily at her sleeping daughter in her arms before responding and discussing motherhood with Dorea, Lily and Elena.

Minerva smiled tenderly at the twin bundles of joy before turning her attention back to Molly Weasley and reassuring the red-headed matriarch that her 2 eldest sons currently enrolled in Hogwarts are doing well in their transfiguration classes. Opposite Minerva sat Mrs Arma Lovegood and Amelia Bones discussing about the latest breakthroughs in transfiguration and the carry over effects on spellcrafting which was interesting and loud enough to drag Minerva into their discussion while Molly went to join the other women in extolling the beauty and cuteness of the new baby girls.

On the other side of the table, the men of the gathering sat and toasted Sirius and James belatedly for their newest family members and in the case of Sirius, constant ribbing at him finally settling down. They soon dissolved into chatting about their children, politics, the ministry, their children, undiscovered creatures, marriage, their children, to name a few.

Through all of this, the constant background melody of happy laughter of children could be heard. The big group of children brought together by their parents' friendships and family ties includes the Weasleys (Bill, Charlie, Percival, Fred, George, Ronald and Ginerva), the Greengrasses (Daphne and Astoria), Tracy Davis (brought along with Daphne), Susan Bones, Hannah Abbott (brought along with Susan), Nymphadora Tonks, Luna Lovegood and last but not least, the Potters (Harry, Primrose and Leo) were playing together in a mixture of chaotic concoction. The older kids, Bill (14), Charlie (13), Percy and Dora (10), Fred & George (8) were playing 3 on 3 quidditch with a quaffle and 2 chasers and a keeper per side on borrowed guest brooms from Potter manor within a warded area where they could not rise higher than 15 feet and the ground was heavily spelled to give a soft landing should any of them accidentally fall.

The younger children branched out, some were playing tag with each other running around on a warded area similarly spelled to break falls and prevent injuries while others were sitting in a shaded area on a flower bed making accessories out of the flowers and chattering away. High pitch squeals of laughter erupted as Daphne (6) successfully evaded Hannah's lunge and ran away towards Tracy with Hannah hot on her heels. Ron's and Prim's (5) laughter joined in as they ran around in circles to prevent getting caught by Hannah.

Harry looked up at the sound of Prim's giggles and smiled in her direction as she caught his eye and waved happily before turning and running away from a chasing Susan. He turned his attention back to Luna (5), Ginny(5) and Astoria (4) who were sitting beside him chattering away with girlish wonder about the wondrous creatures Mr Lovegood had told Luna about while their little hands worked to thread the flowers into bracelets or garlands that Harry had shown them. Harry expertly twisted and secured the flowers into a small bracelet and looped it onto Leo's (2) tiny arms successfully distracting the little toddler from whatever it was that he was putting towards his mouth to bite on. Leo gaggled happily at his big brother waving his flowery wrist around gleefully, distracted by the bright colors and flowery smell floating in the wind. Luna, Ginny and 'Tory paused in their incessant chattering to ooh and aaah at the little boy before starting a new conversation on the pixies living in the garden of the Lovegoods' home.

Harry smiled at the younger girls and Leos' cute antics while hugging Leo and repositioning him on his lap before asking politely for a cup of juice from Mippy, one of the Potter house elves tasked to look after the children. The elf which is about the same size as little Astoria bounced happily and nodded his head before accomplishing the task given to him by Young Master Harry with a single snap of his fingers.

Sipping on the juice, Harry leaned back on his arms and let Mippy take over looking after Leo as the little toddler crawled out of Harry's lap and started exploring the flower bed and the laps of the girls. Harry mused over the events of the last few months.

It had come as a big surprise to Lily and the Potter children when Sirius brought Septima Vector over for a weekend dinner at the Potter Manor a few days after Harry's animagus incident in February. They had known each other since Hogwarts but had reunited during an auror assignment with the DoM and had fallen in love over the course of their work partnership. James, Remus and the elder Potters were apparently in the know about Sirius dating Septima. Of course, the Potter family as a whole was fully accepting and supportive of the serious relationship between the two since they were clearly and deeply in love. Septima brought out the better part of Sirius and curbed his marauding ways while Sirius brought out the fun and humorous part of Septima and was hopelessly in love with her that all other women paled in comparison. It soon became a joyous celebration when both Lily and Septima announced that they were pregnant and a double celebration when Sirius and Septima announced their engagement and later marriage within months.

Due to the fact that Septima Vector came from an old pureblood family and was a former Slytherin to boot, their marriage satisfied the Blacks' family by-laws and Sirius was redeemed in the eyes of his mother for being a proper pureblood and marrying true and she re-instated Sirius back into the family line (although Sirius was never formally disowned nor did he give a damn about his mother). Lord Arcturus Black formally named Sirius as his Heir soon after. The wedding was an extravagant pureblood affair and attended by almost the entire wizarding world. That was about the last time in a long while that Sirius and Septima saw his mother or Lord Arcturus as after the wedding, Sirius and Septima did not bother to keep in contact with his mother and moved to stay in one of the Blacks' many properties, a manor out in the countryside instead of Grimmauld Place where Sirius' mother was staying. On the other hand, Lord Arcturus simply continued with his very private and out of the public's eye lifestyle and did not meet his Heir for any particular reason. They kept in contact by owl mail where Arcturus sent instructions and lessons to Sirius on how to conduct himself in public and in the Wizengamot as well as political lessons on the current climate. As to the direction that Black house should move in the future, Arcturus in a surprising move, told Sirius to do as he deem fit once he becomes Lord Black.

After the wedding, Septima quit her job in the DoM to be a stay home wife and she could be seen almost daily at the Potter Cottage getting to know the Potter family better (as their husbands are like brothers) and soon she earned the affectionate term of "Auntie Tima" by the Potter and Greengrass children. When the duo pregnant women got into their third trimester, James decided to move the family back into Potter Manor so that there was always someone there to look after Lily and the children (elder Potters or the Potter elves). Septima soon moved into Potter Manor as well for company as although she has Black elves to look after her in Padfoot's Place, there are no other human company except for her husband. It was surprising for both families when both Lily and Septima went into labor at nearly the same time and Healers with mid-wife experience were summoned to Potter Manor for them. Remus nearly had to stun Sirius when he almost went hysterical due to anxiousness of the coming birth of his first child. James, having had the experience of 3 children nearly broke his ribs laughing at Sirius and did his best to calm and reassure him, with plenty of help and dire threats by Remus of course. The two ladies gave birth to their beautiful daughters within minutes of each other early in the morning of August 30th. Harry was the first of the Potter children to lay eyes on the newborns, he instantly fell in love with his youngest sister and almost-sister. Iris Lilth Potter unlike her older sister who has black hair and green eyes is a lovely tiny replica of her mother from her red hair to her green eyes. On the other hand, Elara Noctis Black had the black hair of her father but the pale blue eyes of her mother. Both bundles of joy were warmly welcomed by their new family and Remus was soon sworn in as godfather to Elara.

By the gifts of magic, i.e. 2 doses of 5 potions later, Lily and Septima were returned to their pre-pregnancy glory and the well wishes and congratulations from relatives and friends soon poured in.

An interesting event happened a few days after the new births in Padfoot's Place, Sirius almost had a heart attack when his morning post triggered their security wards and delivered a cursed bracelet from his mother for Elara. Apparently the baby bracelet was a Black family heirloom and was cursed in a way that acts as a security for the baby that wears it. When worn, the bracelet will protect its holder by turning whoever dares hold the baby into a stone statue if they are not from the Black family or not a Black house elf. Septima was understanding enough not to send a howler to her mother-in-law and made sure that Sirius lock that bracelet securely in their family vault with the understanding to return it to the Black main vault or Sirius' mum after a few years so as to not insult her.

On his magic front, after hard effort and numerous trials, Harry finally gained some semblance of control over his magic output and spells. Although he is still not at his best golden ratio, it would do for now until his magic channels and core matures or grow stronger. He has also started on his plan to slowly reveal to his family his true powers by constantly performing low-level magic often in the form of accidents. Harry started his plan when he turned Sirius' hair electric blue early one day during breakfast in Potter Cottage as a prank retaliation after Sirius keep teasing Harry by repeatedly hovering his toast out of his breakfast plate and his reach when Lily was not watching. Of course Harry threw in his acting skills by obviously "screwing up his face in concentration" before casting the color change charm on Sirius hair as well as making sure the duration of the charm doesn't last too long. Although he did upped the prank by making sure nobody else could remove the charm by increasing the density of the magic power pouring into the spell. James, Remus, Lily and Septima were laughing too hard to cast any counter spells while Sirius wasted time asking about the reason for their laughter before conjuring a mirror and then laughing his head off at himself. That first time, the color change only lasted 15mins before it wore off and no one was the wiser.

Sirius teased Harry again a few days later and this time, Harry changed his hair bright pink and the color stayed there for half the day. Bringing hilarity to the auror office that day and setting the needed foundation for his plan in the minds of the adults around him.

Harry also started teaching Primrose the basics of magic manipulation and wandless magic by playing games with her using wandless magic. He slowly and patiently guided Prim through the initial steps and principles of _**Intent, Will & Determination**_ which was heavily helped by the fact that Primrose was so young and therefore pure of mind, and she did not had any pre-existing knowledge of magical theory or limitations. They played a game of catch whereby they hovered and sent a small and light weight toy ball at each other. In the beginning it was hard going and seem impossible for Prim to send the ball to Harry by magic, she usually couldn't help herself and use her hands to catch and throw instead. Harry happily took it all in stride and continued to patiently guide Prim to feel her magic and to guide her magic into manipulating the toy ball so as to continue the game. After several months of daily game sessions, Primrose with a one-minded track of determination not often seen in young children managed to gain sense and control over her budding magic prowess. She became well versed in the game of "catch" and from there Harry started playing other similar games but with the use of magic. Soon Prim could do simple levitation, hovering, banishing and summoning within the capabilities of her small but growing magical capacity.

The sight of the 2 eldest Potter children smilingly sitting apart from each other and throwing and catching toys at each other using magic only, with Leo clapping and giggling between them became a common sight in Potter Manor. At first the adults thought it was just the common occurences of accidental magic in young children but as the games of catch became more often, they realize that Harry and Primrose were most probably actively using magic consciously and wandlessly to boot. This shocked and impressed the adults and after questioning the 2 children where they got answers of variants of "don't know, we are just playing catch", Lord Charlus decided to leave the discovery of the children's wandless abilities as it is and to not tell outsiders of the family about it. This helped advance Harry's plan of letting the adults think of him (and Primrose) as simply gifted. He further enhanced this image by starting to read his parents' and grandparents' magic spell books and personal notes for their first year in Hogwarts. He did his reading quite visibly and noticeably by the adults and even read them out loud to Primrose whenever she tagged along or got bored of her own reading. Each time after reading certain first year spells, he made sure to use those basic spells in prank retaliation against the marauders, solidifying his "gifted" image and he nearly always avoided any retaliation by running behind Lily, Septima or Dorea who always took his side against the marauders and then blowing raspberries at the poor marauder. Primrose always giggled at his antics and tried to emulate her beloved big brother but she only had a success rate of one out of every ten tries each time she tried one of the spells her brother showed her. This was still an amazing feat of magic for a 5-year-old and their family were extremely proud and protective of the two of them.

Harry's current self-imposed project was to further his abilities in elemental manipulation. Due to his magical animagus form of Kirin, he has a cross over basic ability to manipulate lightning and he has currently advanced to the level where he can wandlessly cast a lightning bolt from his hands or give a highly charged electrical discharge from his body but he was still unable to get to the levels of lightning manipulation of his old world where he could cast battle mage level magic lightning or travel via lightning which was an impressive alternate form of travel to apparation. His main problem was the lack of a training area as battle mage level magics are battlefield area magics that had the potential to end a battle or the war. These magics were more frequently in use back in the time of the goblins wars and had fallen out of use or knowledge in modern times. He only learnt this due to his private tutoring under the Flamels back in his old world and had only used it sparingly and only in pitched battles against hordes of Dark creatures and Death Eaters.

Harry gave a soft sigh over his current predicament in his private studies before he was roused out of his musings by the soft slap of Leo's tiny palm against his cheek. Looking down with his eyes, he unconsciously grinned at the sight of Leo climbing up his torso and standing on his lap. He happily hugged the toddler who babbled happily at him and looked around at his playmates.

The other kids were mostly just as before, the older group were still flying around shouting raucously on their brooms, Daphne's tag group were now resting in a shaded part of the ground near his stand of trees drinking juice and chit chatting with one another, while the girls from his group are currently sitting by the lake side splashing their legs in the cool water.

Soon, his grandmother gave the call for the children to return to the manor and wash up, Harry carefully stood up and walked over to the manor while carrying Leo.

A few hours later, after an extensive bout of "Merry Christmases", the other families all flooed or apparated home from Potter Manor. Only the entire Potter family, the young Black family and Remus stayed for dinner. Harry and Primrose spent some time after dinner ooh and aah-ing at their adorable baby sister and baby Black. Although the two babies soon drifted off into sleep. They spent the rest of the time before bed time playing with Leo at the foot and watchful eyes of their grandparents while the adults drank a little wine and danced to the festive songs playing over the wireless. The Blacks flooed back to Padfoot's Place after the dances and soon they were herded off to sleep where Prim sneaked into his bed again and used him as a hug pillow.

Harry, snug and warm, slowly drifted off into sleep thinking of his loving family and friends and vowing to always protect this place where he belongs.

Yuldtide – 25 December 1986

"MERRY CHRISTMAS! WAKE UP HARRYYYYYYYY!" squealed Primrose as she bounced on the bed right beside Harry's sleeping form while poking intermittently at his ticklish spots along the side of his torso.

"Urghhhhh, too early Prim..." groaned Harry as he tried to wiggled away from his boisterous sister, an action that is very hard to accomplish due to the constant bouncing.

"IT'S TIME FOR PREZZIES! WAKE UP HARRYYYYYYYYY!" continued Prim as she stopped her bouncing and tried tugging Harry up from the bed. "... it's too early Prim..." groaned out Harry as he allowed himself to be pulled to an upright sitting position, opening his sleep addled eyes, he saw the adorable sight of a cute puppy-eyed Prim pouting at him with palms clasped together as if in prayer. Huffing a small sigh of resignation, Harry surrendered to the inevitable and told Prim to go wake their parents while he freshen up. With an immediate brightening of her features, Prim nodded eagerly before running out of their bedroom and towards their parents. Chuckling at the sound of his sister's cute squeals, Harry made his way to his bathroom.

Harry soon made his way down to the manor's family living room where his grandparents and parents were already seated smiling lovingly at Prim's antics.

"Harryyyyyyy hurry uppppppp" whined Prim as she gestured energetically at Harry, Harry swiftly made his way over and plunked down beside Prim.

"Can we start yet?" asked Prim as she looked at her parents beseechingly.

Dorea smirked at her cute grand daughter's antics as she cradled her youngest grandchild while Lily gave the go ahead nod while cuddling Leo and James smothered his laughter at the soon flying pieces of wrapping paper.

_Looks like Prim got a pretty great haul this year _thought Harry as he looked on with a wide smile at Prim's energetic demolishing of the wrapped presents. Once Prim finished with the last item which was another version of a stuffed unicorn from Sirius, she looked up grinning widely with a healthy glow to her cheeks from her recent activity and said "your turn!"

Harry grinned back at her and accepted the first package passed by her before tearing away the wrapping paper just as enthusiastically as Prim was.

A short while later, Harry smiled happily as he sipped his hot chocolate while waiting for the call to breakfast which was in the midst of preparation by the Potter elves. _A pretty good haul for me too, better than last year in fact_ thought Harry as he looked at the pile of new toys, clothes and a brand new Cleansweep 3 in front of him which is much better compared to last year where he only got toys and children books which after a week, ended up in Prim's toy box.

Harry reached out for the broom and grinned as he felt its lines with his hands and marveled at his first real broom in this world. Feeling a dip on his side on the sofa, he turned his head and looked into the bright eyes of his mother.

"Harry honey, I know you are excited about your new broom and can't wait to try it out but we have to set some ground rules before you can fly it." started Lily as she smiled at the sight of her first born "First, this broom is an actual broom unlike your other training brooms so you are to have adult supervision whenever you want to fly this broom. Second, we have set some parental spells on the broom so that it cannot go above a certain speed or height but I do not want you to push its limits either. Third, you are not to let the other kids, including Prim fly on your broom unless they have their parents' permission as well as your fathers' or mine. Understand?" Harry nodded happily but Prim having heard about the third rule, gave her patented puppy eye look and whined "Mummy..."

"Awww don't do that princess, you will just have to wait a bit longer until we are sure you won't fall off the broom" replied Lily as she hugged Prim lovingly to her bosom. Prim, unable to get her way for once, pouted at Harry as he blew her a raspberry. Soon after, the call to breakfast came and the Potter family went into their dinning hall for an excellent English breakfast.


End file.
